Be it known that I, ALLEN C. SELLnox, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Handles and Combined Locking Members and Retainers Therefor, of which the following is a speoification.

The locking device of the present invention is intended to be used in connection with covers, washboilers, cans, etc., where a ring or handle is used which it is desired to look in either raised or lowered position.

The objects of the present invention are, to provide means for maintaining the ring securely in either raised or lowered position, and to utilize the spring tension which necessarily results from the lowering of the ring to maintain the same in lowered position.

A further object is to produce a device which is extremely cheap and simple of manufacture, and which cannot become disorganized and useless through any ordinary hard usage it may receive; and another object is to construct a device which will enable the articles to be nested when shipped or stored away.

The invention further consists in the features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation showing the ring, together with the locking and retaining device therefor, applied to a cover, with the ring in raised position; Fig. 2, a plan view of the parts shown in Fig. 1, with the ring in lowered position; Fig. 3, a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrow and on asomewhat enlarged scale; Fig. 4, a section on line H of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrow and on a somewhat enlarged scale; and Fig. 5, a section on line 5-5 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrow and on a somewhat enlarged scale.

The device comprises a ring member 6, preferably made of wire and formed with an upper portion 7, which is grasped by the user, and which, in the form shown, is of semi-cylindrical formation. The upper section terminates in vertically extending portions 8, which in turn terminate in horizontally extending portions 9, the adjacent ends of the horizontally extending portions terminating clear of one another, as shown more clearly in Figs. 3 and 4, and these ends are what are hereinafter termed the free ends of the ring member. The locking device comprises a hollow retainer 10, which, as shown, is semi-cylindrical at its upper end 10 and is of a greater depth than the diameter of the ring section, to provide vertically extending shoulders 11 lying below the semi-cylindrical portion 10. These shoulders merge, at their upper ends, into angularly disposed walls 13, which extend inwardly at angles opposite to one another and produce recesses 14 upon either side of the locking member, and these walls 13, as shown, are each curved, so as to produce a semi-cylindrical recess. The locking member is provided with a tongue 15, through which passes a suitable locking means 16 for securing the member 9 to the body of the article to which it is attached.

hen the device is in the position shown in Figs. 1 and 1, the ring section is in raised position; that is to say, the vertical portions 8 are lying within the recesses 1 1; and the angled walls 13 are contacting either side thereof and thus serve to maintain the ring member in upright position. When the ring member is in this position, the free ends thereof lying within the retainer 10 are relatively close to one another, as shown in Fig. 4. But when the ring member is moved to lowered position, the vertical portions -8 will be forced outward by the angled walls 13, so that said walls will act during this lowering operation as wedges to force the free ends of the ring section apart, thereby generating a spring tension in said ring member. And when the device is lowered to the position shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the vertical portions 8 will be in engagement with the vertical walls or shoulders 11; and as the ring member, is under a spring tension, the portions 8 will be forced into tight impingement against the walls 11, so that movement out of such position during usage is impossible.

To maintain the ring in raised or lowered positions in articles of this kind is a point of considerable importance. When the ring is attached to the lid of a cooking utensil, if it is lying flat thereon, it will necessarily become heated during the cooking operation. It is, therefore, desirable to maintain it in raised position, so that it is not brought into contact with the heated cover, and thereby heated to a degree which renders the removal of the cover difficult. It is also desirable to maintain it in lowered position when placing the covers, or other articles, upon shelves or other places where they may be stored. Obviously, it would interfere materially with the nesting of the covers if the rings should be raised so as to lie outward from the body of the article to which it is attached, and this would be especially true where the covers were laid vertically against the wall. By looking the cover in lowered position, the device is made into a very compact article and can be handled and stowed away as easily as thougli the ring were not present at all.

It will be seen from the foregoing deseription that the spring tension which is necessarily produced in moving the ring from raised to lowered position is utilized for holding the ring in lowered position. Obviously, the ring could not be held in raised position without a forcing of the ring past some protruding surface, and, of course, in forcing it past such surface, a spring tension is necessarily generated. In former devices of this kind, the spring tension thus produced has not been utilized for any purpose whatsoever; but in the present construction, it is used for the purpose of impinging the ring tightly against the shoulders of the locking member, and thereby holding the ring in its lowered position. WVhile the ring is securely held in lowered position by such spring tension, it is a very simple matter to raise the same, as when it is raised sufliciently to have the center of the bail member clear theupper edge of the shoulder 11, the ring will then spring inward and be readily moved to its upright position. Thus, the

prying loose of the ring member from any greater vertical diameter than the diameter 1 of the ring is so as to produce the vertically extending shoulders 11, which are essential to the correct and successful operation of the device, as obviously, were the retainer of the same diameter as the ring section, a vertical shoulder could not be produced. And if the vertical shoulder were eliminated, the im pinging action of the vertical portion of the ring against the vertical shoulder could not take place, and a firm locking of the ring in lowered position would be impossible.

I claim:

In a device of the class described, the com bination of a split ring having its ends bent to extend inwardly, a retainer therefor formed of a single piece of metal and consisting of a tongue terminating in an in verted U-shaped member, the lower end of the U-shaped member and the lower face of the tongue lying substantially flush, whereby they lie entirely upon one side of the surface to which they are joined, the ends of the ring lying within the U-shaped member, said U-shaped member being provided with notches in its upper portion to hold the ring in upright position, and with lower flat faces against which the ring impinges to hold it in its lowered position, substantially as described.

ALLEN C. SELLECK. Vitnesses MARY R. Fnos'r, WM. P. Bonn.

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